TORONTO – The Toronto stock market was set for a slightly higher open Tuesday ahead of the start of a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve that is hoped will provide guidance on the future of the central bank’s stimulus measures.

Transport giant Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B) could provide some lift after it announced that it has received an order worth up to US$1.035 billion from VistaJet, which operates a fleet of private business aircraft. VistaJet placed firm orders for 20 Challenger 350s and acquired options for 20 more of Bombardier’s long-range business jets during the second day of the Paris Air Show, a major event for the aviation industry.

The Canadian dollar was lower amid falling commodity prices, down 0.34 of a cent to 97.92 cents US.

U.S. futures were higher as traders also looked to key inflation and housing data coming out during the morning. The Dow Jones industrial futures were ahead 14 points to 15,135, the Nasdaq futures gained 5.2 points to 2,970 and the S&P 500 futures added 1.5 points to 1,635.25.

Market players are slowly getting used to the idea that the U.S. economy could be at a point where the central bank can start to slowly let up on its program of bond purchases, which has been aimed at keeping interest rates and yields low. The program, involving the purchase of US$85 billion of bonds every month, has also helped fuel a strong rally on stock markets that has seen the Dow industrials surge about 15 per cent year to date.

Markets have been volatile since late May when Fed chairman Ben Bernanke first mooted the possibility of the central bank tapering its bond purchases. Triple digit moves have become almost commonplace as traders grapple with whether the Fed will cut back and if so, when and by how much.

Toronto’s main index and the Dow industrials ran ahead about 100 points on Monday. But that was off session highs after investors were spooked by an opinion piece in the Financial Times that said Bernanke will use a news conference Wednesday to signal the bank will start to cut back on its bond purchases each month.

On the economic front, analysts believe housing starts likely jumped more than 10 per cent in May to 940,000 annualized units. Building permits are expected to have slipped to 967,000 annualized units.

Inflation figures are expected to show the annual rate for May will rise to 1.4 per cent from the previous month’s 1.1 per cent.

Commodity prices headed lower with the July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 16 cents to US$97.61 a barrel.

July copper fell three cents to US$3.17 a pound while August bullion gave back $8.60 to US$1,374.50 an ounce.

European bourses were mixed with London’s FTSE 100 index up 0.73 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 eased about 0.15 per cent.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average shed early gains to fall 0.2 per cent. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was nearly flat while South Korea’s KOSPI index gained 0.9 per cent.